To Our Friend
by chocolate-colombo
Summary: Pac-Man wasn't just a colleague. He was a friend. Tag to Episode 1X12


**Here's a little one shot is dedicated to CL's season finale. And Pac-Man D': When I was watching the episode and Travis said "Pac-Man's birthday's coming up" I was like, "they gave their fight a name?" and then I saw that Pac-Man was an actual person :P  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

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"This is how I show my love" Sail by AWOLNATION

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_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

_Shots could be heard as two detectives practiced their shooting. With every practice round, came a competition. Who was the sharpest shooter?  
_

_"I beat ya this time, Pac-Man," Travis announced proudly as he pulled out his earplugs and put his gun down.  
_

_Pac-Man sighed in defeat. "No you didn't," he argued, pointing to the target. "Your last bullet is a tad off-center."  
_

_"My bullets are never off-center." Travis smiled victoriously. "Face it. You're buying drinks tonight."  
_

_Pac-Man's shoulders slumped. "Fine." He put his gun down. "But this time, I'm choosing the bar we go to. And this time, don't try to hit on the bartender's girlfriend."  
_

_Travis shrugged, remembering his..."accident". "Hey," he said. "Where's Wes? We should bring him along."  
_

_Pac-Man raised an eyebrow. "You just want me to spend even more money."  
_

_"No harm, no foul," Travis said as he patted his friend's shoulder. "Besides, with the salary those SIS guys make, you can afford it."  
_

"We beat him," Wes finally said to his partner. "We beat Crowell."

Travis blankly stared at the space in front of him. Travis sighed, burying his face into his hands. "I never thought it was possible," he finally said.

"Me neither," Wes confessed. "But that's not the point. The point is that he went down, we keep our jobs, and Pac-Man gets the justice he deserves."

"Do you ever blame yourself?" Travis asked.

"What?" Wes asked, a bit confused.

"Do you ever blame yourself for Pac-Man's death?" Travis elaborated. "I mean, you and I tried to pay him back by sending a whole bunch of busts to him so he could get promoted and it worked...but..." Travis trailed off.

"Travis, don't," Wes said, not liking where this conversation was going.

"No, Wes!" Travis sighed. "I just can't help but think what would have happened if we hadn't done all of that." Travis looked straight into Wes' eyes. "You ever blame yourself?"

Wes was silent for a while. Travis' eyes pleaded that Wes answer and answer truthfully.

And the truth was, Wes _did _kind of blame himself for Pac-Man's death. He knew that he didn't personally kill their friend, but he couldn't help but think that he had a hand in the tragedy.

And clearly, so did Travis.

"You do too, huh?" Wes finally asked, in a way answering Travis' question.

Travis nodded. "I know that we had no control over what happened but..."

"Yeah," Wes replied. "Yeah, I know."

_"Ever wonder what the Olympic rings stand for?" Travis asked as he took a bite out of his burger. The 2008 Olympics had started, and chaos had erupted due to excitement for it.  
_

_Wes and Pac-Man looked up from their food to stare at their friend in confusion. _

_"What?" Travis asked. "It's a legitimate question."_

_"Okay," Pac-Man spoke up before clearing his throat. "Well," he began explaining in a know-it-all voice. "Everyone knows that there are five rings on the Olympic symbol, each a different color." Travis leaned in with genuine interest, so he continued speaking. "Each color represents something. Black, represents Africans, and yellow represents people from the Asian Persuasion."_

_Travis jaw dropped. "That's not what they stand for."_

_"Yeah they do," Pac-Man replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world._

_Travis and Wes rolled their eyes._

_"Okay then," Travis finally said. "Then what about the other three rings?"  
_

_Pac-Man shrugged as he took a sip of his drink. "Open to your interpretation."  
_

"I almost shot him," Travis confessed.

Wes raised an eyebrow. "What? You told me you didn't-"

"Not that time," Travis cut in. Travis knew Wes was thinking about the day he had pulled his gun on him. But that's not what Wes was talking about at all.

"In the evidence room?" Wes asked, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Travis nodded. "My gun was right in his face. I was so close to doing it. All I could think about was Pac-Man. He never deserved to die and Crowell didn't deserve to walk away free."

Wes nodded, understanding what his partner was talking about. "So why didn't you?"

"I don't know," Travis answered. "I chickened out, I guess."

Wes shook his head. "Travis, you don't just 'chicken out'," he responded. "Something stopped you from pulling that trigger. Why didn't you do it?"

Travis sighed, hesitating before coming out with the truth. "Because...you risked your career to stop me from doing it the first time...I wasn't going to put that to waste."

Wes was silent for a while, replaying Travis' words in his head. Did Travis just say what he just said? Was Travis showing appreciation?

"Thanks," Wes finally said.

"What?" Travis asked.

"Thanks for thinking about that," Wes answered.

Travis nodded. "I know you didn't want me throwing my life away by shooting Crowell," he said. "I know pulling your gun on me was the only way you knew you could stop me...and I'm not mad for it. I never was."

_As Wes and Travis looked at Pac-Man's dead body, they knew one thing was for sure._

_Pac-Man was dead. Their friend was dead.  
_

_Wes felt tears stinging his eyes but he refused to let them fall. Wes had seen several dead bodies before. It had never effected him. But now, seeing Pac-Man dead was too much to handle. Wes wiped his face, stopping a large tear drop from falling down his face.  
_

_"He's dead," Travis' cracking voice said. "He's dead." It finally registered in Travis' head as he started walking back into the car.  
_

_Pac-Man's dead.  
_

"I still think Crowell should be dead," Travis confessed. "And some days, I wish I had killed him."

"He'd be proud you know?" Wes said.

Travis raised an eyebrow. "He'd be proud that I tried to kill a man and you pulled your gun on me?"

Wes rolled his eyes. "No Travis," he sighed. "He'd be happy that the dirty dealings going on in SIS are no longer happening. He'd be proud that we made things right."

Travis let a small smile creep on his face. "Do you ever think we'll ever have to worry about Crowell ever again?" Travis asked.

Wes smiled. "If we do," he answered. "We'll just send him right back to the prison he belongs to."

_"Congrats on getting bumped up to Robbery-Homicide!" Pac-Man yelled.__ "I knew the two of you could do it."  
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_"And we have no one else to thank but you," Wes said.  
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_"No need to thank me," Pac-Man said with a smile. "But this time, I'm actually VOLUNTEERING to take you two out for drinks.  
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_Travis raised an eyebrow. "We should take this Wes," he said. "It'll probably never happen again."  
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_"Unless Pac-Man's planning to poison our drinks," Wes said.  
_

_Pac-Man laughed. "I'm serious, guys. This is totally on me. This is me saying that I know that you two will be the best detectives the Robbery-Homicide division will ever see."  
_

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**Lemme tell ya. Last night's season finale was...Whoa. Words can't even describe. Just everything about it was perfect, even down to the use of an awesome song, Sail by AWOLNATION.**

**Anyway, I'm sad that show's done for now. What else can I watch on a Friday night?!**

***Sigh* Anyway, did you like this? I hope this didn't ruin a perfectly good episode.**

**Okay! I WILL update "Deadly Secrets" soon, okay?**


End file.
